The invention relates to a method and device for transferring work pieces into and out of a tool, in particular a multi-staged cutting and processing tool, wherein a blank is cut out of a clamped flat strip in an upper part.
A method and device are known from EP2 036 629 B1 for fine blanking and forming of a work piece made from a flat strip, wherein a plurality of processing stages lie in a circular path. The work pieces are transferred from one processing stage to the next by way of a rotatable cutting plate. This results in the cutting plate having both a cutting function and a transport function, which leads on one hand to a complicated design of the fine blanking tool and on the other hand encourages wear in the cutting plate due to the continuous sequence of aligning and locating in order to cut the work pieces and the rotational movement to transport the work pieces. Therefore, continuous monitoring of the active elements is required to maintain the precision and accuracy of the fine-blanked parts.
There is also a device known from EP 2 444 172 A1 for removing precision-punched or fine-blanked parts from a tool. The device makes use of a linearly movable cross slide to transport the work piece, the cross slide being movable into the work space between the working parts when the tool is opened, and out of the tool when it is closed. For multi-staged tools, this means that each work operation can only be carried out after the cross slide is moved out of the tool. The time it takes to open the tool must be accounted for, increasing the finishing time per part and decreasing productivity. Also, the linear slides require sufficient space and therefore make compact tool design difficult.